A giant leap forward: wireless, mobile printing |
|
|
|
It's 2:15 p.m. Your flight landed late, and now you're sitting on the runway with no idea when you'll be able to deplane. You have a 3 p.m. board meeting and need to print some notes before you'll be fully prepared. You whip out your PDA and your mobile, wireless printer, and you're good to go.
|
|
|
|
Brass tacks: what works with what |
|
|
Whether your remote tool of choice is a PDA, notebook, or both, you can set up a remote print center to suit your needs. In many cases, the HP Deskjet 450 mobile printer is an ideal solution. Compact, lightweight, and power-packed for mobile use, the Deskjet 450 provides desktop-quality printing. You can also print to the Deskjet 450 from cell phones, digital cameras, and other remote devices.
The key to mobile wireless printing is Bluetooth®, a wireless networking protocol that allows devices in a personal area network (PAN) to communicate with one another. To take full advantage of the HP mobile printing solution, you'll have to be sure your favorite mobile devices are Bluetooth®-enabled:
| • |
Notebooks: Many new notebooks come with built-in wireless capabilities. However, you can easily make almost any notebook wireless with the addition of a Bluetooth® PCMCIA card or a Bluetooth® USB adapter. Both will allow you to send print jobs from your notebook to the Deskjet 450. |
| • |
PDAs: Most PDAs are IR- or Bluetooth®-enabled, which means that if they support printing functions at all, they are also ready to communicate with a mobile printer. However, you may need more equipment. For instance: |
|
• |
If your PDA isn't wireless-ready, you can typically use an expansion card or pack to enable it. |
|
• |
If you have an iPAQ Pocket PC, you can enable wireless printing capabilities simply and easily. Just download the Mobile Printing for Pocket PC software from HP (you'll find the link at the end of this article). This software allows you to print e-mail messages, Pocket Word files, RTF and text files, calendar items, contacts, tasks, and images in BMP, JPG, and PNG formats. |
| • |
Mobile printer: If your notebook or PDA is Bluetooth®-enabled, you will need to buy a Bluetooth® CompactFlash card for your DeskJet 450 mobile printer. HP recommends the Anycom CF-2001 CompactFlash card. |
| Note: If your notebook or PDA is not IR- or Bluetooth®-enabled, you can still use the parallel cable that comes with the Deskjet 450 to print your documents. While you won't be fully wireless, you will be fully mobile. |
|
|
|
|
|
Printable version
